Future Writer Chapter 20 (8 pages)

Chapter 20

BAM! The sky lit up and the two flying objects had disappeared leaving heat trials in a northerly direction. Both the MiG and the F-14 were left clueless as to the whereabouts of their targets.

Television: "This just in from the White House. The two unidentified flying objects have just left our atmosphere at speeds faster than light. This travel speed explains their mysterious appearance earlier today. What their purpose was, or even their intentions were unknown, but we do know this, life does exist beyond the confinements of Earth. The question now is, where and how do we

contact them?

It grieves me to say that there has been one confirmed death of a U.N. worker in Dushanbe. The identity has concealed upon the notification of the next of kin. Both the Russian and NATO force agree to hold a cease fire status during negotiations for the liberating Dushanbe...."

"At least the fighting had stopped," was all I could say.

What bothered me was that, although Clancy wrote the two UFO's being sighted, he never wrote that they would leave. Where did they go? I discarded that and focused of how to free the city of Dushanbe.  I turned the television low so I could concentrate. Then just as I was getting clear thoughts of the situation, I could hear a commotion outside. I walked over to the window to find people rushing to their cars and driving madly to the already congested streets.

"What is going on?" I thought.

At that moment I heard thunder cracking through the sky. I've never known people to run like this from a storm.

"Boom, Boom, Boom!" more thunder was heard from the sky. I thought it to be heat lightning by how high and scattered the clouds were.  I looked to the television set which I had turn the volume down and I could see the news commentator talking on a microphone while people are running in a panic behind her.

"Boom... Boom..." <from the sky>.

I had to see what that noise was. I walked to the door and down the corridor.

"Boom... Boom..."

I opened the door to the outside and I saw first hand what was making the people panic. I ran as quickly as I could back the apartment for the ledger.

"Boom... Boom... Boom"

I reached the door and fumbled for the keys. Once the door was unlocked I ran for the ledger. My toe hit the door trim as I entered the apartment. I rolled onto the living room carpet in pain while I held my foot. I picked myself up and hobbled to the bedroom. I reached under the bed and pulled out the ledger.

As quickly as I could I filled in the ledger trying not to overlook any details since the last time I'd updated it.

"Boom... Boom... Boom," the windows began to shake.

"I can not believe this," I thought to myself, "the world is at the verge of destruction and it's all my fault."

The big picture of what was happening struck me like a meteor. Writing in this ledger brought the destiny I had written, but unfortunately, it brought the extra baggage that accompanied it. I sat down and quickly wrote a list of all of the events that I'd written for myself, and next the that, I wrote all of the events that accompanied them.

1. Wrote that I'd meet Alexia  -> She was married

2. Wrote that her husband was found dead  -> Alexia was arrested

3. Wrote that real killer was found  -> Arrest ignited a war which killed Alexia

4. Wrote that a common enemy would appear -> Enemy is soon to attack

I feel like a person who lied and now must lie even more to cover that first lie.

"Boom... Boom..."

5. Wrote that I'd get promotion  -> Stress and sleepless nights

6. Wrote for wealth  -> Receive lawsuits from gold diggers

7. Wrote of reading thoughts  -> Found Alexia thinking of somebody else

8. Wrote of thought injection  -> Injected thoughts became obsessive

9. Wrote Jose's mother to health  -> Alexia began seeing me

10. Wrote that we'd be found in the jungle  -> Found by fierce Indians

11. Wrote that we're found by tall white  -> Found by Alexia's husband man in a safari outfit

12. Wrote Alexia would get her wish       -> We were rescued from jungle

After reviewing this list I discovered that some of the item which I wrote turned out in benefit, while most turned out in destruction, but why?

"SSSSSEEEEEEUUUUU.....BOOM!" Items began falling from the shelves.

What do I do? What do I write to make things better?

"CRRRAAAACK...Boom...Boom"

The ground began shaking so violently with each jolt that the sheetrock on the walls were cracking. I looked outside. The sky was now filled with hundred of thousands of Metallic, tear drop shaped, flying objects.

"ZZZEEEEOOOOUUUU...Boom!"

The sounds of military aircraft could be heard flying overhead.

I ran back to the ledger. What do I do?!! I could hear people screaming.

"Boom.. Boom"

I looked back to see if my grandfather ran into trouble like this. As I glanced through his writings, I could see that he had gone through the same type of journey as I did.  My grandmother was previously married. The husband was written as being found dead. My grandmother and grandfather were later married. She was blamed for the murder. My grandfather wrote a real killer. Fighting broke out in Lithuania. Archduke Francis Ferdinand was assented. Later World

War One developed. My grandfather disappeared.

"Wow!" he went through the same type of events that I did. What happened to him

to disappear like that?

I went back and read deeper. I remembered that one night I was reading about my grandfather and I was onto something but it was too confusing At the time. What was it? I flipped page after page. My grandfather's handwriting was just like my own. It was difficult to distinguish where his story left of and mine began. Here it is. He was writing about Clancy for the first time.

"In my failure of creativity I am writing of and author whom I've named Clancy Ferguson. Although I hold the quill, Clancy holds the imaginative spirit. Clancy's main character is named Daniel from which image Clancy has derived from me. If Daniel is written in my image then he too is an author and his main character is named Sampson with the nickname if Sam..."

"Sam... Sam... Sam," stuck in my mind.

Was my grandfather's Daniel writing about me?

There was only one way to find out.

"Boom... Bang.... Boom..." The electrical power went in the apartment.

I went to the window for more light.

I had Clancy write:

Daniel runs for the cover of his apartment. The sky is now filled with thousands of flying metallic objects. It has been almost ten minutes since the electricity has gone out. Daniel begins writing in his ledger. He writes feverishly until his hand cramps from holding the quill. Finally he is done. He looks out from the window the see a beaming light glare through the window. He feels his spirit

being lifted to a space craft. He feel a numbness then the light is gone and he is on his balcony in darkness.

"How long have I been like that?" Daniel thinks to himself as twilight disappears over the horizon.

From the darkened sky a man presents himself. He appears to be floating in a hovering fashion. The man looks very much like Daniel only seventy years older. The gray haired muscular man seems to formalize his appearance on the balcony next to Daniel.

"Daniel?" he says in a voice like thunder while a glow illuminates form his body.

"Is it you?" Daniel asked.

"Who did you expect, the Tooth Fairy?"

The man materialize into a more human like form. His voice settles to a moderate tone.

"I'll get a light," says Daniel as he fumbles his way through the darkened living room. He rushes back out with a camping light which lights the whole balcony with a dim luminescence. In the dim light, Daniel feels as though he is looking into a computer camera that police use to add age to a suspect. The man is astonishingly like Daniel.

"You have summonsed me?" the man says.

"You are him," says Daniel, "I can't believe this."

Narrator: "That should be enough," I thought to myself as explosions rob thousands of people of their lives.

"Boom.... Boom. boom. boom. boom...........Boom" <and people scream>.

I ran to the window following the last set of blast. I could see smoke rising along the shore line.

The sky was filled with thousands of flying metallic objects just as Clancy wrote. It had been nearly ten minutes since the electrical power had gone out. I knew what I had to do. I began writing in the ledger. I wrote like a mad man in the heat of the blasting bombs. Feverishly I wrote until my hand cramped from holding the quill. Finally I wrote what Clancy had Daniel write. It was done. I looked out from the window to see the same beaming light glare through the window as Daniel. I felt my soul being lifted to a space craft. It was as if I had left my body. I felt the same numbness  that Daniel felt then the light was gone leaving me on my darkened balcony.

"How long have I been like that?" I thought to myself as twilight disappears over the horizon.

"Boom... Boom, boom,..."

From the darkened sky a man presented himself. He appeared to be floating in a hovering fashion. The man looked very much like me only seventy years older. The gray haired muscular man seemed to formalize his appearance on the balcony next to me.

"Sampson McKain the Third?" he said to me in a voice like thunder while a glow illuminates from his body.

"Is it you?" I asked.

"Who did you expect, the Tooth Fairy?"

The man materialized into a more human like form. His voice settled to a moderate tone.

"I'll get a light," I said as I tripped over the living room furniture in the darkness. I rushed back out with a camping light just as Daniel did which lit the whole balcony with a dim glow. In the shadows of the light, I felt as if I were looking into a computer camera that police used to add age to a suspect.

The man was astonishingly like myself.

"You have summonsed me?" the man said. "as I knew you would."

"You are him," I said, "I can't believe this."

"That's right lad.... Allow me to introduce myself personally. I am Sampson McKain Senior, and you are my grandson."

I didn't know what else to say. I was at awe with the thought of talking with a man that, all my life, I thought to be dead.

"You're a handsome lad," he continued, "just like me, and just like my son, whom exist with me in an equal time, different dimension."

"What are you talking about?"

"I knew that you wouldn't understand. Nobody can unless you've passed through it. It is beyond your comprehension until you cross over."

"Cross over to where?"

"All this time... you thought I was dead... In your reality, I am."

I was really getting confused.

"When I disappeared," he continued, "I didn't die. I went back to the time I received the ledger."

"But why? How?"

"My life continued as if I had never received the ledger at all. You were born to my son in that reality just as you were born to my son in your reality."

"How is that possible?"

"I can not even explain how it works unless you've crossed over in time to  another tangent of life. Without crossing over, there is no common reference to to compare to so you couldn't possibly understand. It would be like explaining color to a blind man. A blind man who has never seen color, light, or dark, has no idea what these concepts are. Until you cross over, I can't explain to you how it works."

"What do you have to do to cross over... I mean what did you have to do?"

"May I see the ledger?"

"Yes, here."

He flipped through the pages. As he did he chuckled as he read parts of his own writings.

"That was one hell of an adventure."

"What I had written?" I asked.

"No," he said, "What I had written."

"I went through a very similar experience, VERY similar. You see, I had Clancy write of Daniel, as if Daniel were me, just as you have done. I never put in the details as to what Daniel wrote. It was assumed that if he were me he would write what I wrote, with a slight change here and there to make the situation work, of course. It didn't occur to me until after I crossed over, that he was

writing the future of the ledger's next author. That, my boy, is you."

"Wow!"

"That doesn't mean that your future is predestine. You still had the choice to write whatever you please. Unfortunately you are just as selfish as I was."

"Selfish???"

"Yes, selfish!"

"Look at your list. Ask yourself who benefits from what you wrote. If you wrote a selfish destiny you received it with a heavy price tag. Life plays a constant balancing act. You may get what you're after but sooner or later you'll have to pay for it. Likewise, if you are a giving, and kind, person, you will be rewarded by having others being kind and even generous in return."

"Boom.... Boom, Boom." A light fixture fell from the ceiling.

"You must have been very selfish," he said, "The world is on a path of self destruction."

"What should we do?"

"No, It's what should YOU do?"

"I don't know where to go from here."

"I stumbled across the solution by accident," he said, "I started a story just as you have started a story. YOU MUST END THE STORY."

"How do I do that?"

"Two words."

"What will happen to you?"

"I'll be fine. You'll see."

I opened the ledger and held the quill tightly in my hand. Thunder began to roar. The ground shook violently. The sea began to boil while the sky turned so bright it was blinding. On the paper I wrote an upper case 'T'. The wind blew hot air so strongly that it shattered the glass in the windows. I wrote a lowercase 'h'. Mountains erupted in the ocean. I wrote a lowercase 'e'. Water from the sea washed away the streets below. I wrote and upper case 'E'. Blue and orange colored clouds raced across the sky. I wrote a lowercase 'n'. The wall of my apartment began crumbling away. I wrote a lowercase 'd'. The floor below my feet started to fall away. I brought the quill down hard to the paper and following the last letter written I placed a period.